BR's message: Seize Wembley moment
In the final moments before Liverpool head out of their Wembley dressing room to face Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-finals, Brendan Rodgers will urge his players to seize the opportunity in front of them.
Last August, the manager set his squad an objective of securing silverware this season, a feat that he believes would prove hugely beneficial to the ongoing development and growth of his young team.
They fell at the penultimate hurdle in the Capital One Cup earlier this year, narrowly losing out to rivals Chelsea after extra-time in the second leg - despite performing with style and substance across both meetings.
So there's no shortage of hunger to take a step further in the FA Cup, a competition in which the Reds have won four ties on the road to tee up a clash with Tim Sherwood's in-form Midlands outfit.
Chances to play in a semi-final at Wembley do not arrive all that often and that's a message Rodgers will be reiterating to the Liverpool side as they step onto the turf with the aim of booking a return in May.
The boss told Liverpoolfc.com: "You have to seize the moment. It's not a final, but it's a semi-final with an opportunity to come back. It is games like that where you write your name in the stars as a player, the big games.
"You want to make the big contribution and the big goals. If you want to be renowned as a top player, then you produce in the big games and that's what the good players will do.
"You can't take it for granted. You just never know in your life, and professional sport, when the opportunities arise again. So when it comes you have got to be ready to take it and that's something that I know the players are waiting and ready for."
In the last four of the Capital One Cup against Chelsea, it was fine margins that settled the winners over 210 minutes of high intensity and fast-paced football at Anfield and Stamford Bridge.
On that occasion, the Reds were undone by a single goal. But Rodgers insists that he and his group learned enough from how that semi-final unfolded to enter this one with the steel to see it through.
"The players performed very well under pressure over the two games, and I think we were very unfortunate not to make the final," the Northern Irishman reflected.
"What we have learned is that we want to play well and win; we have been fairly good at that. But it will be about getting through. We want to concentrate on performance.
"But the learning taken from those two games is that we want to get through. So even if we don't play as well and get through, that's what's important in cup competitions."
